Recipients in your email marketing contact list are more than just passive spectators or unquestioning followers; they’re active players in your campaign as well. They determine the fate of each individual message you send and influence the direction of your entire project as it proceeds. That’s why, when there’s something wrong with your email message, you’re often not the first to know. In many situations, you’ll only become aware when it’s too late – when your recipients have already diagnosed and done away with pointless emails.

Weak emails show signs and symptoms that sometimes aren’t all that obvious at your end of the spectrum but become significantly more pronounced as your messages reach your recipients. It’s hard for senders to observe many specific types of email abnormalities that contacts in your email leads database can easily spot. As such, it’s important to thoroughly look for these tell-tale signs well before you hit the “send” button.

Here are six common email characteristics that recipients normally use to diagnose poorly-prepared email messages or campaigns. Any single one of these would be enough to land your emails in the spam or deleted folders, so watch out for these carefully:

1. Unidentifiable Sender.

The sender name is just as important as any other component in your email message. If your recipients won’t be able to recognize or identify from whom the message originated, there’s a strong chance your email will be ignored or even deleted. Be sure to include the sender’s name in the from field and avoid generic or non-person references.

2. Anemic Subject Line.

In a crowded inbox of 100+ email messages, having a clear and strong subject line makes all the difference between being noticed and being ignored (or disposed of). You only have about 50 to 60 characters to try and grab your busy recipients’ attention. Use this tiny piece of real estate to be direct, benefit-oriented, and compelling.

3. Displaced Content or Copy.

Irrelevant content, message text, and references are the worst of all these symptoms. These oftentimes underline a more serious email campaign condition that contacts deal with by not only getting rid of your email but by unsubscribing from your list as well. Always maintain relevance and timeliness in your campaigns and don’t forget to personalize.

4. Lethargic Calls-to-Action.

Calls-to-action (CTAs) are another set of parts in your email message’s anatomy where recipients observe weakness in the email’s potential for conversion. CTAs inability to suggest and encourage action on the part of the recipients is a terrible waste of resources and can lead to your email’s immediate demise at the hands of your readers.

5. Difficult Layout & Design.

If reading or going through your message requires a strenuous amount of effort from your recipients, then this highlights another key problem area in your campaign. Although this may not be apparent to you as the sender, it can be quite obvious to your recipients and can likewise be a source of annoyance or disappointment.

6. Disconnected Landing Pages.

Landing pages are meant to continue the conversation started in your email message. If your landing pages aren’t aligned with the points you’ve made in your emails, then this can be a potentially messy situation where you and your readers lose touch of the main purpose of the email.